The invention relates to a hay harvesting machine, and more specifically to a machine which breaks up the cut mass resulting from the action of a mower of any desired kind.
It has already been proposed to obtain a uniform and speedy drying of the cut herbage by means of a machine which has pressure rollers which extend into the path of conveyor prongs up to the periphery of a conveying drum. The pressure rolls are arranged in this device on an axis transversal to the direction of motion of the machine and are spaced from each other and driven to rotate about their axis. The pressure rollers in this case are forced against the periphery of the drum in order to break up the cut mass by bending, buckling or squeezing it. They are adapted to yield against a spring force depending upon the specific thickness of the moving mass.
The effectiveness of the bending, buckling or squeezing of the mass in this prior art machine is insufficient, particularly under those circumstances where the cut mass, because of a relatively high performance, is passed between the pressure rollers and the periphery of the drum in a comparativey thick layer which causes the stalks in the interior of the grass to be broken up only insufficiently or not at all. The drying of the spread herbage in these cases is uneven and for this reason unsatisfactory. There is also the danger of a coiling of the herbs and stalks around the exposed axes or rocker arms of the pressure rollers which can cause a jamming up of the machine and thus interrupt the operation. Besides, it cannot be avoided that delicate leaf portions of the cut mass are ground and torn up between the surfaces of the pressure rolls and the revolving prongs of the drum. This causes substantial losses particularly of portions of the mass which have a high nutrition value.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a machine of simplified function and structure which assures a breaking up of all stalks of the cut mass without grinding of the nutritive leaf portions and accomplishes this even with a high throughput of cut herbage.